Hey! What about us?
Washington is in high dudgeon these days over the acts and antics of the Donald J. Trump who appears to be a few steps away from Richard Nixon-like chats with the paintings.
But the New York Times op-ed authored by “Deep State” once again obscures the ultimately key role played by Republicans on the other end of Capitol Hill to enable the Toddler-in-Chief to destroy our constitutional democracy.

The record of the 115th Congress, both of whose houses are controlled by Republicans, is not, shall we say, stellar. The main legislative accomplishment is the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017, which reduced the corporate tax rate and restructured the personal tax code in ways that hit blue states particularly hard by reducing deductions for state and local taxes and charitable contributions. While middle class workers may see temporary benefits in their wallets, those wil fade away by the middle of the next decade.
Not so for the business breaks, which have boosted corporate earnings even after one-time bonuses (rather than salary increases) for employees.
Those breaks are also fueling a trillion-dollar bulge in the national deficit, one that outgoing House Speaker Paul Ryan still hopes to close by cutting Social Security and Medicare “entitlements.”
If not for the dramatic late-night thumbs down by the late Sen. John McCain, Congress would have also killed the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, despite rising support for the health care law.
Working behind the scenes, GOP lawmakers are crafting a proposal to gut the pre-existing condition protections they claim to be saving in the face of public support. A modern day case of “we had to destroy the village to save it.”
On the Senate side, we are now observing the fallout from one of the most naked acts of partisan power — a holdover from the 114th Congress and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to bring forward President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Judge Merrick Garland.
Over the course of the 21 months of this Congress we have also seen a failure to deal with immigration reform and the Dream Act among other simmering issues. And how that had led to the separation of children from parents at the southern border — a nightmare that continues today in defiance of a federal court order.
And then there is the abject failure to exercise its constitutionally mandated oversight authority. Look no further than the House “Intelligence” Committee and its whitewashing of Russian interference in our 2016 election.
Ah yes, the 2016 election. The denials, name-calling, partisan bickering and assorted controversies and mini-scandals that have blocked efforts to understand how our voting choices were manipulated through social media efforts by agents of a hostile foreign power. And prevent it from happening again.
So yes, Trump’s antics and shenanigans aimed at dividing the nation by appealing to the shrinking minority who voted for him raise serious questions not only about his mental state but his belief in the system of laws he was sworn to preserve, protect and defend.
But in focusing solely on his actions, we fail to give proper credit (or blame) to the co-equal branch of government that has chosen to put party over country.
